Quantum Fields on Discrete Proper Time: Vacuum Stress--Energy Corrections, Non-Equilibrium Phenomenology, and Experimental Targets

Abstract

This work builds on our discrete proper-time framework (Spinelli, engrXiv DOI:10.31224/5376), where proper time is discretized at the Planck scale, yielding a finite Lorentz factor and a modified dispersion relation (MDR). Here we develop its quantum-vacuum and phenomenological consequences. Rather than rederiving those results, we (i) embed the MDR in a minimal quantum field theory (QFT) and check microcausality and unitarity to leading order; (ii) introduce a covariant “desynchronization tensor” Δμν that quantifies phase mismatches between proper-time slices and compute its leading contribution to the renormalized stress–energy tensor ⟨Tμν⟩; (iii) derive analytic, Planck-suppressed corrections to Casimir energies and photon group velocities; and (iv) formulate conservative, falsifiable experimental targets for optical resonators, dynamical Casimir platforms, and astrophysical time-of-flight. All results are consistent with precision Lorentz tests. We frame any “vacuum pumping” strictly as non-equilibrium QFT requiring external work, with backreaction and entropy production explicitly accounted for.